thinking about MY mission

A group made up of several friends and a few others from our church is in Guatemala helping at an orphanage this week. As they got ready to leave, I was strangely wishing that I could go too. Seeing the pictures that they post each day is only making me wish I was there more.

Last week, I saw a book I had been wanting to read in our church library’s window: Kisses From Katie, by Katie Davis. I read the intro and first chapter last night. Wow, is almost all I can say. What an amazing follower of Jesus, she is. I can tell that I will be crying through much of the book. On page 7, Katie says, “I think many people would have looked at them and seen only their filthy clothes, the ringworm on their heads, or the mucous that ended up in a crust around their nostrils. They would have looked around at the dormitories of the orphanage with it’s smooth, hard cement floor where rats and cockroaches made themselves at home and been a bit disgusted. By the grace of God, though, I didn’t see these things…I just sat right down on that cold, hard floor and snuggled my nose into their dirty necks and kissed their fungus-covered heads and didn’t even see it. I was in love.”

I feel as though God is preparing me for a mission trip. Probably not tomorrow, maybe not even in the next couple of years, but sometime. I also know that I am not currently like Katie, I am one of “the many people.” Maybe my faith isn’t strong enough. I don’t know. I do know that “dirty” really bothers me. You know those people who wear gloves at the grocery store and keep their faces covered? Yeah, I could really turn into one. I don’t like germs, I don’t like not being able to wash things, clothes or hands if needed. I don’t like people (for the most part) in my personal space. If I smell something gross, I must get far, far away. My husband would be the first to tell you that I am pretty much crazy and very probably, extremely annoying. I work very hard to hide it from most people. So, I am not sure how I would make it in a country with no running water in most places, and people living in garbage, and so much disease. It would be with God alone that I could do it. He would have to close my eyes (and my nose) so that I could show love to people who need it. My heart is won over and ready for mission work…my flesh is not.

I know my current mission field is my home and my four little children who need me to teach them. I want to lead by example always and I want to teach them that everywhere is their mission field too. If we can go where we are needed and help “the least of these” we definitely should. I want them to see that and I want them to do that when they grow up.